This application is the U.S. national phase of international application PCT/NO01/00273 filed Jun. 27, 2001 which designated the U.S.
This invention concerns a system for handling baggage in airports. A familiar problem in connection with air travel is that the travellers' baggage is not sorted in due course because of the manual handling not being executed fast enough. Secondly, conventional conveyor belts work at a speed of about 1 m/sec, and the manual handling and sorting tales up too much time. As a consequence there are often delays in connection with the sorting and delivery of baggage to travellers.
A familiar problem for the traveller is baggage that does not reach its destination in due course. This particularly applies for transit baggage and entails great inconvenience for the traveller. In addition, the airlines experience a great deal of extra work and high costs. Any traveller who has reached a destination without his baggage knows how difficult and stressful this may be.
Furthermore, there is a problem with damage to the baggage because of manual handling, in addition to theft and disappearance of baggage.
Present baggage handling systems require a great amount of manual labour and involves tough physical work in that the workers have to make many and heavy lifts. As a consequence of the tough working environment, the number of absence among the workers is high, as is the turnover and the degree of replacements among the staff. The present baggage handling system in use in most of the world's airports is, in other words, a great source of expense for the airlines.
This invention concerns a system for handling baggage in airports where the passenger hands over his baggage at the check-in desk and collects it on arrival at his destination. The system is distinguished in that it includes a check-in area for baggage with means of marking and sorting of the main baggage and the transit baggage, means of transport of the baggage,
a buffer for main baggage and a buffer for transit baggage and means of continuous transport of the baggage from the buffers to the airplanes in the departure area.
An important quality of this baggage handling system is that the buffer for the keeping of direct baggage and the buffer for the keeping of transit baggage both transport and store the baggage. Both buffers change identity and destination for a limited amount of time as a result of the various departures. The buffers function as storage rooms for the particular departure, and the baggage is collected and stored in the buffers from the time it has been checked in until just before departure.
Another important quality is that the conveyor belts, the main buffer and the transit buffer are reversible and can transport the baggage in both directions.
In their broad features, the present systems are the same as the ones that were in use in the 1940s, apart from the fact that they have been enlarged owing to a marked increase in the number of travellers and quantity of baggage since then. Poorly constructed and complex baggage handling systems do not offer the travellers optimal service.
Today the travellers give up their baggage at the check-in area. The baggage is marked with a identification tag consisting of a three-letter abbreviation to identify all the world's airports (i.e. airport codes). After check-in, the marked baggage is put on the conveyor belt and is carried to a hall for reloading, where the tag is read manually and the baggage is lifted off the conveyor belt and loaded onto baggage trolleys in a train. Here the first manual reloading of the baggage is done. When the trolleys are full and the passengers who are travelling with that particular flight have checked in, the baggage train is taken to the waiting plane in the airport. Then the second manual reloading is executed, where the baggage trolleys are emptied and the baggage is placed on a sloping conveyor belt and loaded into the hold in the base of the airplane. Regular baggage and transit baggage are loaded together. This system requires a great amount of physically demanding work. There is also the risk of mistakes being done in the reading of the tags, with the consequence that a large quantity of baggage is transported to the wrong airplane and thus the wrong destination.
An average airline company receives from 100,000 up to 130,000 damage statements every year on an average. A damage statement may be the result of baggage that has been sent to the wrong destination, baggage that has disappeared, been delayed, damaged or stolen. The airlines estimate that each of the damage statements amount to NOK 1,000 to 1,500 on an average and this of course results in great expense every year.
The invention under consideration provides a new and simpler system and arrangement for the handling of baggage. The system is capable of eliminating the need for labour in the handling of baggage. As a result, the airlines' expenses in connection with the handling of baggage will no longer apply, as the system will make sure that the baggage is not delayed, sent to the wrong destination, damaged, stolen or lost. All baggage will reach its correct destination in time, intact. This is due to the fact that the system does not require personnel, in that the baggage is transported and stored on a connected conveyor belt, and no manual reloading is done during transit, before the baggage is loaded on board the plane.
A tremendously important feature in the baggage handling system is that all the conveyor belts and all the storage belts are reversible. Another quality of great importance is that the conveyor belts and the storage belts change identity and destination numerous times during the day, depending on the different flights' destination and point of time.
The baggage handling system that the invention consists of is partly based on well-known components, however the composition and the particular way in which they are organised ensures that the invention differ from the systems that are already on the market.
As mentioned above, the average speed on a conventional baggage conveyor belt in use in airports today is about 1 m/s. With the new system the speed can be increased up to about 3 m/s. The system enables the baggage to be loaded on board the airplane before the passengers. This particularly applies for the transit baggage, where delays most commonly occur.
The main reason for this is that in the invention the baggage will be transported on a cohesive conveyor belt from the minute the baggage has been checked in until it has been loaded into the plane. The demanding work of reloading of baggage from the conveyor belts onto transport trolleys and trucks, and then into the hold of the airplanes, has been simplified and rationalised with this new system. All the manual work with reloading of baggage between check-in and loading into the plane is eliminated.